Home workouts: All you need to know
Have you often started an exercise program and stopped after a few days or weeks? Have you bought a membership to a gym only to make payments? If you have, you are not alone, and Mickie Rowlett-Carter can help change the narrative. It doesn't matter what stage you're in, Mickie can help identify a program specific to your needs.
Mickie is the Founder and CEO of the popular brand and website, One Strong Southern Girl and host of the podcast, Crunches and Cosmos. A trained registered nurse, physician assistant, and home exerciser for over 20 years, since 2016, she's written hundreds of recommendations and reviews of the top programs, products, and services for women who exercise at home. Her mission is to create generations of strong women who can accomplish their biggest goals.
From an early age, Mickie knew that exercise was not about fitting into a certain size or looking a certain way. Instead, she had the foresight to understand that movement is vital to mental and emotional well-being.
Mickie also understands that we all have a workout personality. That's why she created The Workout Personality Quiz, which is available on her website, One Strong Southern Girl. Mickie is relatable, authentic, and real about finding what works for you. She wants exercise to be a lifestyle choice, not a trend.
Mickie describes mental fortitude and taking radical responsibility for yourself. You will walk away knowing that you, too, can take control of your life. Mickie is one strong, spicy, independent, courageous Southern woman who wants to inspire the next generation through her life and company to be strong and understand their power to make a difference in the world.
Learn more here
https://onestrongsoutherngirl.com/
Insta handle: @onestrongsoutherngirl
Mickie’s Podcast
Listen to the full episode below
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[00:00:00] Monica: Okay. Hi everyone. I'm so excited to be here. I am joined today with my amazing, and very talented and badass partner mel, how's it going, Mel?
[00:00:10] Melissa: It's going well. It's great. As we had an awesome event last night, one of many to come and we've got your longtime friend with us today, Mickey, so I'm excited.
[00:00:22] Monica: Yeah, girl. And can you tell a little bit the listeners what you've been doing for us this week? You launched our new website, which is like awesome. You did such a great job.
[00:00:31] Melissa: I did. I designed and launched our new website with quite a bit of help. It's a team, right? And one of the reasons that we had to do a new website is we also launched our first workbook in course. And so we needed to be able to deliver that as a downloadable and as a video series and in a shopping cart. So any of you familiar with web design knows that all three of those things are plugins and functionalities that you probably didn't have at the beginning of launching a brand website. So there was a learning curve there for me and I'm proud of it. I think that this is all coming together.
[00:01:09] Monica: It looks awesome, and I love that we included some of our best friends, our community members, because it really represents what we're trying to do. it's not just about me, it's not about you or Amy. It's about bringing all these women and just in the knowing and the belief that there's a world of untapped potential in women, and we wanna represent that and make sure we are lighting things up with everyone around.
[00:01:31] Melissa: Yeah, I think we're doing a better job communicating that. And it's true, we have our beautiful friends, Lisa and Dipa and Keisha, who joined us for a photo shoot, and they make the brand new hero image on the website just come to life. And I couldn't thank them enough for, not just participating in the photo shoot, but they've been our big supporters for a whole year. Now, behind the scenes.
[00:01:55] Monica: Well, speaking of supporters, let me tell you about this support. Our guest today, I have been friends with for over 30 years. We met as young girls getting into some shenanigans, no doubt. But Mickey and I go back a long way. I'm thrilled to welcome my friend Mickey Rowlett-Carter to the Kindling Project. She's the owner of one strong southern girl. She hosts her own podcast as well, crunches and Cosmos. She's a formal medical professional and home exerciser for over 20 years, and since 2016, she's written hundreds of recommendations and reviews on the top programs, products and services for women who exercise at home. Permission is to create generations of strong women who feel capable of accomplishing their biggest goals. In the last eight seasons, over a hundred episodes of Crunches and Cosmo, she interviews CEOs and leaders in the home fitness space like Carl Deckler, C E O of Beachbody, Kathy Spencer Browning, VP of Programming and training at Mosa, and Jill Daley, founder and c e o of the Daily Method. Pretty cool. And she shares her tips, strategies, and the latest updates in their companies. Mickey and I have been friends for, like I said, 30 years. We became fast friends in high school. She answers to mom, wife, sister, daughter, friend, blogger, podcaster, instructor, author, designer, motivational speaker. She's kind, funny, intelligent, and speaks all things southern like, "y'all fixing to do something!" She's a big ball of awesome. I wrote a blog about Mickey of many moons ago, but I just wanna share with everyone a little bit of what I wrote about her. Mickey and I were forced to grow up fast. We had to play adults at a young age. Who has time for high school drama? Not us. We were dealing with real shit. Don't get me wrong, we desperately wanted to be normal. We wanted a mom and dad family dinners and an acid washed jeans. It wasn't in the cards for us. We danced between two worlds, one of trying to assimilate with our peers and a world in which we didn't get to fret over which prom dressed to buy. We needed boundaries, but the real adults in our lives were desperate to survive. They too were in survival mode. We had no choice but to lean heavily on each other. Our crew, even though we were foolish at times, I'm convinced we survived those years. By melding us one individually, we would have drowned. But together we were in the right amount of everything together. We were one strong girl. Mick taught me the importance of mental toughness. I was a big softy and needed sharper edges, and if I was gonna survive, she helped me sharpen my edges. Mick was always strong, wicked smart, and hardworking. And she still is, and she's still such a light in my life, and we don't see each other nearly enough. But I'm telling you this girl, just get ready to our fire starters who are listening. She's gonna light things up. She's amazing. So welcome Mickey.
[00:04:49] Mickie: Wow. I don't even know what to say. I didn't know you were gonna read that. So that made my day. And I love you. Thank you for having me here. I'm just honored that you guys invited me. It's very exciting to be here and thank you so much for having me.
[00:05:01] Melissa: We are so excited to have you. Can you tell us a little bit more about your business?
[00:05:06] Mickie: Sure. So back in 2016, I decided I wanted to a venture outside of being just a medical professional, which was a wonderful profession, very rewarding. But I wanted to help women and support women who exercised at home. It's what I've been doing forever. It had empowered me or has empowered me for a lifetime of getting through things and just been my foundation for a lot of things. And people have always asked me how I do it. Like, what workouts are you doing? What should I do, constantly. That was the one theme in my life. People asking me about how I was exercising and, even though I did go to the gym at one point or several points in my twenties. I went to the gym a lot, but even as a teenager, I don't know if Monica remembers, but I would go home and work out after school before we would go out and do our shenanigans. I would usually go home and like, get a workout in even in high school. So, I just have been doing it for a very long time and decided. Start a business doing that to support other women. So I started writing reviews of programs, products and services of different home fitness programs that were around the market. And then back a few years ago, even before Covid, but really during covid, the explosion into the market, and the bar has been raised of services about exercising at home. Really, the standard is so high now, like the quality of workouts and things you can find to support your fitness decisions, is vast, right? And you don't have to go anywhere, you can do it all at home. But there's so many options that people have a hard time navigating through all of it, quite frankly. And so, what I do is review all those programs myself. I've done hundreds and hundreds of home workout programs, so I do them myself, write in depth reviews of them and kind of share them with other women to try to help them know where to start, where to go next, how to get in shape, how to feel great with the idea of empowering women. Strong women affect all the women in their life. So, and like I said, I have two daughters, a stepdaughter and my own daughter and I also am raising a granddaughter and I have a vision for what I want to represent to them, and I want them to be strong women.
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[00:07:10] Mickie: And I think it starts with taking care of yourself and taking radical ownership of your health and fitness. But anyway, my business, yeah, it's grown since 2016. I have the podcast hundreds of episodes encouragement, tips and reviews of programs, products and services. And like Monica mentioned, I have reviewed several CEOs of some of the biggest subscription on demand programs on the market and have them talk about what their goals are and how they help women and how they help anyone who exercises at home. I also have a website with tons of resources, and I've started an e-commerce brand as well. It's one strong southern girl, but we sell an aerobic step that is the best one on the market.
[00:07:45] Melissa: wow. We are so proud of you. Just thinking when you're telling this story, that okay. This girl has been working out since high school, but I imagine that a lot of people that you encounter, like myself and the people asking you questions, what should I do? What's the best workout? Like, not everybody has that level of commitment or that level of discipline. Like, what are your tips? If I'm not, you and I haven't been working out since high school what do you tell someone like myself who maybe wants to work out at home but has done it sporadically for 30 years?
[00:08:16] Mickie: Well, that's very common. Yeah, I hear that a lot. Regular movement, regular intentional movement is so important, especially I feel like, for women just to give you that confidence to do the things you want in life and to be happy. We make time for the things that are important to us.
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[00:08:32] Mickie: And if your health is important to you, I feel like you will make the time and the commitment to do it. And I think it's really key for women is to find something that makes them happy. A way to move that makes them happy. And it takes a lot of effort. I think people just wanna try it, like ask their friend what they're doing and then they go do it, and if it doesn't resonate with them and bring them some kind of joy they're like, well, it didn't really work for me. I guess, regular exercise just doesn't seem to work for me. and that's why I'm doing what I'm doing, why I review so many different programs. There's a reason that you have all these options. It's because one program does not work for one girl. We gotta find the way to move that brings us joy. And so you gotta keep out there, keep doing it. I just encourage you to keep trying, find a way to fit movement into your life every day. It pays off massively. There's no reason not to do it, and again, it's a way to take radical responsibility
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[00:09:22] Mickie: Of your health and fitness and your path in life. It's just an important ingredient. And it becomes habit. it's like flexing any muscle. The muscle of commitment, you have to flex it to make it stronger. And so you have to be willing to devote the time to find what works for you. That's not to say you're doing anything wrong I think, not to be hard on anyone. I'm a big tough love person, but to put it bluntly for people, I'm like, you make the time for the things you find that are priority in your life. We just do. especially as women, cuz we're so resourceful, right? Women just know how to be resourceful. We know how to get five kids to five different lessons. We find a way to make things happen. We're all meant to have regular movement in our life all the time, whether you're training for a marathon or just walking and getting your heart rate going and getting the benefits of movement
[00:10:08] Monica: What you're saying, Mickey, it's like if what I'm hearing is like your desire has to be greater than any excuse really, like your desire to want, whatever that is, X, Y, z, it's gotta be greater. Anything. Even as we talk about our own kindling project and launching this business, having to give up certain things or move our schedules around. But the desire is there, we do those, we make those sacrifices or make the time, however you wanna look at it. But you do it because you want to. So, Mickey back it up a little bit though. You mentioned high school and starting young, and I do remember you being very active. You were gymnasts too, correct? So was it that training that was in that seed that was planted early on or did you feel like the benefits of exercise early on, did it do something for you greater than just looking good?
[00:10:54] Mickie: I think looking back at it now, it was a psychological benefit that I was probably like self-therapy in a way, and as teenagers, I think that's what it was. I didn't recognize it at the time. My self-esteem was not there, and I would've never in a million years felt like I was pretty or sexy or skinny, it had nothing to do with any of those. As a young, immature girl, I guess maybe that was a goal, but it was also, I think, just like I said, a form of therapy and hashtag sweat therapy, on Instagram, but it truly is, it feeds my soul.
[00:11:27] Monica: Right. So you had this really incredible career and you're such a academia in many ways. You're so smart and you went into PA and I think you always knew that you were gonna be involved with people, helping people. But I'm curious, I know people were coming to you for exercise advice, but when did you know like, Hey, I think I can do this. I think I can marry my passion and something for profit and combine it and just do something you really love cuz it shows, by the way, in all your Instagram and everything you do, there's like a genuine love and passion and I think when you're passionate about things, I think we all know this ladies, things just look easy.
[00:12:03] Mickie: I don't know, I was hoping it would work out and be profitable, but I knew that I was passionate about it and I knew I wanted to help women. And being in medicine as a pa like you said, I always wanted to be a doctor. So in a wildlife of ways, I felt like I had failed in the medical field because I never quite made it to that level of the profession in the medical field. I had kids very early and medical school just was not gonna happen with two kids at home. But helping people in the medical profession was very rewarding, but this is what I wanted to do. I saw myself helping women in this way and in the medical profession, well, my whole life, honestly, I can think of so many women who I wish were stronger psychologically, right? Like had the fortitude, the mental fortitude. It's a little bit different now. Every generation has changed a little bit. Younger generations of women I would see at the clinic, as my patients and in my own life that I felt like were lacking that mental fortitude of strength and like, I don't need another person to be happy. This, like I said, radical responsibility of taking control of your life yourself. This is just one part of it. You taking control of your health and your movement, but it starts somewhere, and I just really encourage and want that
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[00:13:13] Mickie: For other women, I want women to feel confident to go after their dreams, leave relationships that don't serve them, do all of those things. And it starts with this attitude of I'm taking control of my life. Regular movement has to be one ingredient because you have to take care of yourself to get to those places, to the next level in your life.
[00:13:30] Melissa: I really appreciate everything that you're saying about movement but talk to me directly. Like I said, I'm that girl. I'm just working my ass off with my family, with my business. Now I have this second business, the Kindling project. I don't think that I have a lack of radical commitment to my life, but I'm tired. Right? What do you say to women out there like me, who are just exhausted at the end of the day and I'm just struggling to prioritize, movement?
[00:13:57] Mickie: I think we all do, right? Who's not tired at the end of the day, like, I'm exhausted at the end of the day. there's many days where people I think people think they're gonna be happy and excited for every workout and it just doesn't work that way. a lot of the times it's doing what's hard. And so, you may have to rearrange your life or I think you have to make a plan. Do I wanna make this part of my life? And what am I gonna change to fit this in? What can I say no to so I can say yes to this? Because this is more important. So you have to find that balance. Like you guys always talk about that. You have to balance those things that you find important and wanna prioritize. The other thing to consider is the time and the effort, the payoff is massive, right? So even giving yourself a 30 minute workout or a 15 minute workout, new studies are showing that as short as like these hit workouts or 15 minute, like they're calling bite size workouts, if you can fit in three bite size workouts a week and you're doing nothing now, you're long-term gain for your health is massive, right? Especially if you make it a habit and you gotta start somewhere. You gotta start somewhere. So I would say you have to kind of think about it differently. It doesn't have to be a huge commitment. You don't have to completely sacrifice time with your kids or never make a meal again, or like all the things, people are like, well, I can't do that. I can't now never go to church again. It's not like that. you really only need a small amount of time to get started and you might find that you love it enough to commit more time to it, but you really don't need as much time commitment I think that people think that they need. And then you go to people like me and you listen to the reviews and I help you navigate with your choices and try to find the things that will light you up and you get excited about doing. And that helps even more so, and then find a community of other people doing the same things and having the same goals and it really drives you forward. Cause a lot of times we tend to attract and hang out with people who reinforce the bad habits in our lives. And that can be something else. If no one in your house works out and you all go home and you're like, man, I'm so glad to be vegging, I'm glad you don't work out. Cuz then I would feel bad about it. Right. So, it, there's a lot of factors that go into it, a lot of variables, but you do have control over it for sure. Especially women like you who are making a difference in the world and making the impact that you are, this is certainly something that you could change. I would tell any woman that.
[00:16:02] Melissa: We can tell that this is your Kindling project. Like your passion really radiates through everything you say. And I know I listened to some of the episodes recently and it did get me thinking, I could try that. Three sort of yoga style workouts a week, and then three more of like the hit style workouts a week. And I was like, well, I could do at least half of those. I know for sure.
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[00:16:22] Mickie: And that's a start. There you go. And that's more than you're doing now. So that's a win, right? You build up those little wins, take those little steps, and before you know it, it's your life, it's your lifestyle. So, yeah.
[00:16:31] Melissa: Can you share with our listeners who may have a similar kindling project, they're interested in exercise, or health or maybe just podcasting. How did you manage to marry this passion with a prophet?
[00:16:43] Mickie: It's been a process, so my business has morphed and grown and changed and all the things, right? So I've tried lots of Different things during the course of my business. The only thing that's really stayed the same is the reviews. So that's kind of been the foundation were the reviews I've written. But one time I was doing coaching and one time I had some courses and I still have some of those things and I still have some, stand self-paced study classes. But most people don't wanna sign up for a class to create a home fitness routine. They just don't. They want you to feed them a workout and I'm trying to like, kind of get people to look at it differently, cuz your exercise and your fitness routine is really like a lifetime project. It's like a DIY project. You wouldn't go and learn how to plant a garden by just someone telling you how, you would go and learn how to do it and how, so you could nurture it and grow it and do it and sustain it on your own. I have a quiz on my website, it's called Workout Personality Quiz because I feel like everybody has their own workout style that resonates with them and lights them up. It may be like jump rope workouts or rollerblading. It may not be traditional, but you have to find that and recognize that it takes some effort. Yes. It takes even more time than you're already talking about. Whatever you like you go figure out what's next. Right.
[00:17:54] Melissa: I'm gonna go take that quiz! That's on your website?
[00:17:57] Mickie: It is on my website. Yeah. one strong southern girl.com.
[00:18:00] Monica: You do a great job at just giving people through Instagram and your website information different ways. So even from jumping on a trampoline or yoga or weightlifting, you do it all. And I love that because you're right, there's something for everyone. But also as we change, Our body changes and we respond to things differently. I know back in my twenties I was really into running or I say jogging marathons, but you know, I finished a couple marathons. That was a big deal for me. I can't tell you I am not running anymore, but I do find other ways. And so it's sort of listening to your body, seeing how you respond. And sometimes I tell these to all my friends. Sometimes it's just having a dance party in the kitchen. That's my movement for the day. But, Shake my hips. That's what's happening. And it works.
[00:18:42] Mickie: It does work. Notice, how it makes you smile, right? Just moving the right way and it's removing that inhibition. That's one reason I love working out at home is cuz it's like 99% of women feel inhibited at a gym working out in front of other people. You just do, right? You're looking around, you're being judged. Like, what am I wearing? What does my ass look like? What? Why did I fix my hair like that? Why is she wearing makeup with the hell? Like, I really dunno how to use this machine, but I'm gonna do what that guy just did. It's all the things and it really does just affect your progress and why you're actually there. So it's like go home, do a dance workout, feel like a fool for two minutes. But like you'll be smiling and getting the benefit and that's what it's all about, and no one cares what you look like. You just worked out, right? You tried it, you did the thing. It's a success. It's a win. Move on.
[00:19:24] Monica: I love the inspiration. But Mick, can you also give us a little bit of your obstacles and the not so fun part of the running a business? By the way, you too are busy. You too have kids, you're always watching some field basketball or some baseball or softball. So you've got a lot going on. You've got a husband you're a sister, your daughter. Tell me about the difficulties and how you overcome the obstacles of running your business.
[00:19:49] Mickie: It's a lot of, every day being like, wow, I got nothing done. Like, I feel constantly, like I didn't get enough done. You know what it's a lot, but it's a lot for all of us. It is truly difficult to run a business on your own. There are so many things, tech alone, like y'all were talking about, setting up your website. Like, I can't tell you how much I have learned and I'm so proud of myself for since 2016 of learning like all the things, tech, hiring myself at every twist and turn. I never hire someone else until I know how to do it myself. I've made that a true habit. The obstacles just reflect running any business. I think it is difficult in time management, is super important. I have to be protective of my calendar and my time and say no to a lot of things that maybe I would've said yes to before. And think about, is this activity going to affect my profit margin? Nowadays is this a profit building activity or just a fun activity? I really like doing, designing stuff on Canva is super fun, but doesn't bring me any benefit, even time on social media. Nowadays it's so important to be on social media, but honestly, to me, podcasting, I have much more return on that investment of time than I do creating social media graphics and content. Even though I enjoy doing that, people look at it, it's just, you only have so many, so much time to work with every day. So every day I kind of sit down and think about my time that way. And I'm also, like I said, we have a two year old now suddenly we have five grown kids. My youngest is 16 and she's still at home. But all of these things, your priorities in life and how you manage your time and the things you do are constantly changing. Your phases of life change, your goals change, and you have to adapt and adjust and decide what's a priority and I still work out every day or five to six days a week, regardless of having a two-year-old. It's just sometimes she works out with me and sometimes she doesn't. And a lot of times I use my hours of work to get in a workout because I feel like it's what I need to do to keep sane.
[00:21:40] Monica: Yeah. But I also love that. I bet now you have more likes on Insta now that you have a little workout buddy. Cuz she's adorable.
[00:21:46] Mickie: And she works out girl, I'm telling you. And the reason that I like her to be there with me cuz I'm like, if you think that your daily movement and your commitments to your physical health are not affecting every girl in your life, every woman in your inner circle, you are so wrong. Look at this little girl. Like she copies everything I do! And I go work out and she's there. Where's my one pound weights and she's lifting 'em. Like I don't, I'm not telling her to do any of that. She was copying me, she's watching what I'm doing and it's becoming important to her. She understands that, on some level, and I'm showing her how
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[00:22:18] Mickie: To build a foundation that's gonna serve her forever. And so you have to remember that too. That's where I'm like building generations of strong women because I can't tell you how many people, like teenagers, my daughter's friends are like, you work out, they even notice. And I'm like, what I'm doing affects those around me the same way anything anyone else is doing trickle down effect to all those little girls in your life, and women and your aunts and your cousins, and your mom and your sister, and all of those women are being affected by those positive changes. And so they notice, they see it, whether they tell you or not. Every woman could have that same impact to the people in their inner circle.
[00:22:53] Monica: So going back to your schedule, do you do things by batching? Because you do the podcast, you do writing, you do your website, you do the clips, you actually show people how to work out. So is it by batching?
[00:23:04] Mickie: I do use batching some, that got really popular about, two or three years ago in the entrepreneurial space, the whole method of batching. I tried to batch, but. And then you get burned out a little bit on one thing. So this point, try to follow like what my mood tells me if I'm in the mood to talk and record podcasts, and we talked about earlier, recording a podcast, it's just your voice. If you're in a bad mood, it comes across on the podcast. So I have to think about that when I'm recording. So if I'm in a good mood and I'm ready to be like super enthusiastic on audio that day, I'm like, I'll do a couple of podcasts for writing my reviews. That takes a lot of time because I do every workout in the program if it's a long program, and if it's just like I'm about to review, tone it up, someone reached out to me and asked me to review that. I've never been gifted these programs. I do it as a real user and a real person, and then I try to give the feedback. So it takes a long time to do a review. It takes me several weeks, a month to do an in-depth review. So that one is a little bit different. Social media stuff. I try to batch that. Do you guys, you do batching a lot? I think it is helpful. Just depends on what you're using it for.
[00:24:04] Monica: I'm starting to, we try with our podcast to, for specific days but I'm going to start as we get more into writing content and providing content to our community. I think that's really the only way. And truthfully, I know we are not the selfie generation. Like, look at me. We've talked about. Generation X, we're not used to that, but video content is so important to our community. They really wanna get to know us. They wanna see us and get to know us. So that's one of the things Mel and I talk about and Amy, like, we've gotta get out there. I will definitely be batching that because there's no way that I'm walking around with full makeup hair all day. I'm usually yoga, like messy bun and maybe lip gloss. So yeah, I imagine I will be batching my videos.
[00:24:49] Mickie: Yeah, a hundred percent. Yeah, a while back, well I keep meaning to start a YouTube channel cuz I have a lot of content, content I wanna put on YouTube. But it's for that exact reason, it takes a lot more than just recording the stuff, the content, there's a lot that goes into it. That's one factor people don't think about if you're gonna be on video, not everything has those cool Instagram filters that make you look gorgeous! So.
[00:25:08] Melissa: It does feel like we're getting this message that you have to do all the things, and I kind of feel like we probably don't have to do all the things. Maybe try all the things, but at some point, and I don't know if you've found this with your podcast and your business, the Kindling project is fairly new. We're gonna try all the things, but we might like settle out for three of 'em, right? Like if we can do a handful of 'em or less than a handful of 'em well, some of 'em you might just have to let go, right? I don't know, if we can do a podcast and we can do video trainings and courses and we're gonna try them all, but. It's a lot of pressure, right?
[00:25:43] Mickie: Yeah. And it's impossible. It's literally impossible to be on all of the social media platforms and to do it well, you can't, so you're absolutely right. I think you just have to pick and choose which ones your audience are on and where they'll watch you and then double down there. I've tried to be on Instagram, still on TikTok I don't know. Social media is very difficult for me cuz I'm just like, on one hand I really preach a lot to women to be very careful with social media cuz I feel like it's very detrimental psychologically for us in so many ways. And so I really encourage people to limit their time on social media, but yet the industry tells us we have to be on there as businesses and that are online, have this online presence, we constantly have to be feeding that, and it's just difficult to find the balance. And then still remind people, yeah, I'm on a social media break here.
[00:26:30] Melissa: I've had this thought of like, when did we all sign up to be free content creators for these big companies? Right. I know there's money to be made, but also a lot of us are signing up to work for free, right? For YouTube and Facebook and Instagram, and I'm not sure I really like that . As Monica said, we're Gen Xers.
[00:26:49] Mickie: Which helps because we can zoom out and look, and your audience. The same generation as you, I would imagine. So they understand that.
[00:26:56] Monica: So mickie these companies aren't giving you the free exercise classes or so forth in your reviews? You're honest, you're very honest. And have you ever reviewed one where's like, Negative or not so Great? And have you ever had any pushback or any bad press for it?
[00:27:13] Mickie: I get requests a lot to be on podcasts or to talk about products. I usually am vetted out and if it's not something that aligns with something that I think will be beneficial from our audience or something that I a hundred percent can stand behind, I don't endorse it and I don't even review it, so I don't even look at it. It allows me to avoid that. There's a lot of products on the market. I've thought many times about creating a podcast where I'm like, don't buy this shit. stop spending your money on these gimmicks. there's so much exercise equipment on the market that's basically a freaking gimmick. I'm like, people buy this shit. Like, what the fuck? But at the same time, and then a part of me's like, that's someone's business. They just sold a million of those, why would I just go and be like shit on their business? so I don't feel good about doing that, so I just don't talk about it. People email me, which they do often. Do you recommend this product? I'll say I recommend something better. If I don't like it. I'd never ask for anyone to give me a. Membership or something because I want it to be authentic. I don't want to be paid to say something nice. However, at the same time I'm like, there are definitely some I review that I'm like, wow, you got lots of room for improvement here. This is like, you could do a lot. And I usually say where they could improve, like, what I found not helpful. If this is the program that makes some woman happy to move every day, I'm like all over it. So that's what I'm here for. So I find the good in every program that I got some value and will help at least one woman that might be listening.
[00:28:37] Melissa: I have a 14 year old son who's like really gotten into working out and cutting and measuring his food and like losing weight and bulking up and it feels a little scary because I have no filter for the content that he's getting on TikTok. Right. Like I just, I know he's watching bodybuilders and some of it feels a little extreme.
[00:28:56] Mickie: Well, supplements are, this are the one that's a massive industry and I get asked constantly about supplements and asked to endorse them and asked all kinds of things. But that is like I draw a hard line on supplements. When I was seeing patients as a PA on a college campus most of my patients were college athletes. And I can't tell you how many college athletes that came into my clinic who had kidney or liver enzyme elevations or problems because they were taking supplements that are not regulated, just not in a regulated market. And they're not safe for everyone. And like you said, these kids get their advice from TikTok.
[00:29:32] Melissa: He's like, I need to order some pre-workout on Amazon. And I'm like, you are 14. You don't need caffeine!
[00:29:38] Mickie: And you can't convince them otherwise. Yeah, it's very difficult. I totally agree. It's a scary industry and it's not regulated like it should be. And I draw a hard line on that. I never recommend supplements to anybody. I just don't. I'm like, if you wanna do it, that's fine. Just be very careful with it and know that if you've developed any issues that are kind of weird and you can't explain them, you might wanna stop your supplement and see if it goes away.
[00:29:58] Monica: So, Mick, do your kids listen? Cuz the two youngest are super athletic and play, collegiate sports.
[00:30:04] Mickie: Thomas, we have this debate constantly cuz he uses the pre-workout, he does the things. He's just like your son. He's just turned 20 a couple of days ago and he, left high school and when got buff in college and, he's doing all the things and working out and it's very hard. And even my older son, that's almost 30, he, I know he's, he uses some of those supplements as well. And it's not that they're all gonna kill you or anything, there's a safe way to use them. I just think it's not regulated. And like you said, they're getting advice about what to mix together and what to take and how often to take it off TikTok. It's like, really, these are essentially, these are medicines. Like if you took too much of 'em, you really could kill yourself and it's just like Tylenol. You know it's safe until you take too much of it.
[00:30:48] Monica: So true. So true. So Mickie out of all the reviews that you do I think I know your favorite, might have to do something with a little stepper, so why don't you tell us about that?
[00:30:57] Mickie: About the step?
[00:30:58] Monica: Yeah.
[00:30:59] Mickie: Oh, okay well, that's definitely my favorite home fitness product is the step, just because I think it's the most versatile. Now, if you were to say what equipment should I buy? If I'm an exercise at home and I have no equipment, I would probably tell you to buy dumbbells first, just because you gotta strength train as a female. However, a step would be second, just in my opinion, you get the most bang for your buck and invest in an aerobic step, a full size aerobic step, and then educate yourself on all of the amazing ways you can use it. And we sell the best one on the market, aerobic step shop.com. And even if you don't like mine, mine's a big investment cuz it's the best one on the market and has some patent pending features that no one else has. But there are other steps of the same size. Go get one of those if you don't wanna invest in mine, because I still recommend that product over all others. So yeah, thank you for letting me plug that. But yeah, I've worked very hard on that product.
[00:31:46] Melissa: There are a lot of women in the Kindling Project, ignite, which is like our Facebook group, and just in the community in general who are interested in manufacturing or product design or we had an event last night, a woman was talking to me about where do I start? Like how do I get things manufactured? Do you wanna share with our audience a little bit about how that process went for you? Or any tips you have for, maybe not even exercise equipment, but somebody who has an idea for a product? Where did they start?
[00:32:13] Mickie: There are so many resources. Go to YouTube and start asking, finding free educating yourself for free. There's so much information out there. Don't pay for anything to begin with. But if you want to, it depends on where you wanna manufacture it from and source it from. And if you're trying to design like a product that's never been out there, versus white label and existing product and kind of brand it you have so many options. So it kind of depends on where you wanna sell it from like what pla are you trying to be an Etsy seller? Like a homemade good type thing. Or are you selling like on Shopify or Amazon? Like I sell on Amazon and I have an online store on Shopify and I source my products from China only because, kind of forced to, because we have not been able to get, I couldn't run my business and sell and make any kind of profit unfortunately, if we manufactured it in the US we've tried multiple times and it's just not a possibility right now. Every few years we try to find a US manufacturer, but, we would not be able to make any money if we did it that way, unfortunately. But all customer services is and our fulfillment team is US based. So I would like, just wanna say that, reach out to me. I'm a big advocate of learning, right? As you can tell. And so when I first started, I found a course. My wife quit her job, Steve Chu, he has a podcast and all he talks about is this subject. But I actually have a review on my website of his program, his entire program, which is, it's the one article I have that's not related to fitness cuz I reviewed it because I invest a lot of money in it. And I think it's really good. But he sells a course where he walks you through, Exactly how to do the entire thing. But there are other courses out there. But he has a great podcast with hundreds and hundreds of episodes about this same topic. So I would just start by educating yourself and then find a good class or course.
[00:33:53] Melissa: It's just encouraging, I think, for women to hear another woman say, yeah, I did this and I started on YouTube, because that feels doable. And I think that when you have an idea and you're like, how am I gonna get in contact with a manufacturer in China? Well, maybe that doesn't seem as doable as watching a few YouTube video. Just starting somewhere.
[00:34:11] Monica: That's great. Can you say that website again? Where did you learn your tips? The course?
[00:34:15] Mickie: My wife quit her job.com I think is what he's calling his website now cuz it was create an online store or create a profitable online store or something. He's had several URLs. I think they all point back to that, but it's Steve Chu and my wife quit her job, so I think you can find it.
[00:34:30] Monica: Okay, cool. And so what's next for you? when you're thinking about your business and scaling what's next for you in the next three, five years?
[00:34:38] Mickie: Growth. Just like you guys probably building my audience. I wanna help as many women as I can through my free content. And of course building out the e-commerce platform. I would like to get our step in the hands of more people. We want to be the the premium choice for anyone buying an aerobic step and anyone ready to replace the one that they bought in the eighties. I want people to think of one strong southern girl and be like, that's the one I want. We have locking risers. So it's a kind of a cool feature and colors. We're talking about expanding the line if we get really successful and approaching other companies and other businesses and, it's a process. But yes, growth just in general to help more women, touch the lives of more women.
[00:35:18] Melissa: If you have any video content or other content that you wanna share with our small community that's growing we welcome that.
[00:35:26] Mickie: Thank you. I'll look into that. I don't know if I do or not. I would love it if people would listen to the podcast, head over to the website, check out the reviews, email me if you have programs that you've been interested in and want to know more about before you invest in it and find out if it's for you. Yeah, so the website's one strong southern girl.com. My social media handles at one strong Southern girl on TikTok and Instagram. Best aerobic step. I have that Instagram handle too that's kind of just shows videos and information about our aerobic step. And just as a sideline, our model in all of our Instagram feeds, the Young Fit Girl is my daughter in all of that stuff. And the podcast is Crunches and Cosmos. Wherever you listen to your podcast, we are there.
[00:36:08] Monica: we will include all this on our show notes as well, and promote you and our community. So, Mick what would you tell your young self, knowing what you know now?
[00:36:17] Mickie: So you sent me this question and I really thought on it because that's a hard thing to say because it implies that I would make things different. Right. And really as many quote mistakes as I've made as a young woman personally, my personal life that have led to changes in my path and in my life, I wouldn't change any of them. And so for every teenage girl out there that I wish they could see is to just be themselves and embrace who they are instead of trying to be anyone else. And it's really a diffi more difficult than it sounds. It sounds so simple now and even now I have to check myself and be like, that's not you. Right? Embrace who you are because you are not someone else don't do things to please other people. Don't do things that don't resonate in your soul and find who you are. And it's really difficult as a young girl you're still finding your way as kids. You're very influenced by your circle of friends. Luckily I had you guys blessed and thankful that I had female friends that were so confident and I looked up to, but I really spent a lot of time wanting to be as cool as you guys and as rich as someone else, or look as good as someone else, or have the ass of someone else. Like it was never about being happy with who I was, as a young kid. And I think that's normal in a lot of ways, but I do. It was time not spent well and led to a lot of unhappiness that I wish that I could get back. So I would, I think that's the advice I would give myself to really heart to heart. You're awesome how you are, and embrace that and quit trying to be someone else. Quit trying to make your hair look like her every freaking day. It's okay. Your hair doesn't do that. Like, stop it.
[00:37:52] Monica: That's great, Mick, that you said that because I found a quote that you shared with me once and you said, if I could go back in time, I'd grab my face with two hands and stare daggers right into my eyes and make myself promise to never ever waste another spark of neuron juice on appearance. And I love that because it's so true. It's like the time we wasted being so hard on ourselves, we robbed ourselves of so much joy because we were always on the comparison lane, and we still do it as women, but I think we're getting better. But man, and good luck sharing that with your daughter and actually penetrating that because you're right, it's such an important message.
[00:38:31] Mickie: And social media makes it that much harder, right? You're competing with social media constantly on that message, but it's a tough one. And even as women, as business owners, we're always comparing our business, what's success? That person started overnight, they're like so much more successful than me doing the same thing. It's like so irritating. I'm like, what the hell?
[00:38:50] Monica: So Mickey, thank you so much. We always wrap up the show with a little shout out for anyone in your life this week that just inspired you or gave you a moment or you just shout out to anyone, anything that's happened, you're free to say anything.
[00:39:04] Mickie: Well, it was my son's birthday a few days ago, so I'll have to say happy birthday to Thomas. And he turned 20, like I said, he wasn't here. He was on a trip with some kids from his church in Florida. So it was a first birthday that I didn't see him. Which is okay, he's growing up and he goes to Tennessee Tech and he's on a path to be an engineer and he's a great kid and I love him immensely. But that's a shout out. I'll give a shout out to him. He's on my mind today, so.
[00:39:30] Monica: Aw, that's sweet. What about you, Mel? Who do you have for this week?
[00:39:34] Melissa: You know, I feel super grateful today for our local community of women because even though I know we're building a national and an online business, our local girls have really been showing up for us, right? They showed up last night at our event and at our photo shoot, and I just feel like we have a whole community of women around us that are helping us grow and build, and I'm grateful for it.
[00:39:58] Monica: That's a good one absolutely. Okay. Well, my shout out is to my high school crew, including Mickey. Gong and Wild and Stepe and Buffy and of course, my sister Franny. I love you girls so much. I think about you all the time and you're part of my yesterday's and I'm so grateful for that because I am who I am today largely due to someone you know, like Mickey. So thank you.
[00:40:20] Mickie: Thank you. Same to you.
[00:40:22] Monica: All right, girls, so, stay tuned. Next week we're gonna talk, taking a real leap into betting on yourself. Our guests will have you looking inward. Until next time, remember, it only takes one spark to ignite the fire. Bye everyone.
[00:40:38] Mickie: Bye. Thank you for having me!
[00:40:40] Melissa: Bye. Thanks, Mickey! Thanks Monica!